AI Search Optimisation: How to Get Your Business Cited by AI Assistants

AI search optimisation is the practice of structuring your website so that AI assistants can find, understand and quote your business in their answers.

For twenty years, being found online meant ranking in a list of blue links. That is changing. A growing number of people now put their question to an AI assistant and read a written answer instead of opening ten tabs. Search engines also place AI-written summaries above the traditional results.

For a business, the question becomes: when someone asks an assistant to recommend a marketing agency in Lagos, or how much a website costs in Nigeria, is your business part of the answer? This guide explains how those answers are assembled and what you can do to be included.

What AI search optimisation means

AI search optimisation is the practice of making your content and your business easy for AI systems to retrieve, interpret and cite. You will see it called generative engine optimisation (GEO), answer engine optimisation (AEO) or simply AI SEO. The names differ; the work is the same.

It is not a replacement for SEO. It is an extension of it, with more emphasis on clarity, structure and reputation beyond your own website.

How AI assistants put an answer together

The details differ between products, but most assistants draw on two sources.

What the model learned in training

A language model is trained on a very large collection of text. If your business is described clearly and consistently in many places on the public web, the model is more likely to have an accurate picture of it. This knowledge has a cut-off date and changes only when a new model is trained.

What it retrieves at the moment you ask

Many assistants can also search the web in real time, read a handful of pages, and write an answer with links to the sources. Here, ordinary search visibility matters directly: the assistant can only read pages its search step finds.

In both cases the system favours content that is easy to extract a clear statement from. A page that says "Our brand identity projects start from ₦450,000" is quotable. A page that says "Contact us for bespoke solutions tailored to your unique needs" is not.

Step 1: let AI crawlers read your site

AI companies use crawlers, just as search engines do. If your site blocks them, you have removed yourself from consideration.

• Check robots.txt. This file tells crawlers what they may read. Some security plugins and hosting settings block AI crawlers by default. Decide deliberately whether to allow them.
• Do not hide content behind scripts. Text that only appears after heavy JavaScript runs, or after a visitor clicks, may never be read.
• Keep pages fast and error-free. A crawler that meets timeouts and broken pages gives up.
• Consider an llms.txt file. This is a simple text file at the root of your site that summarises who you are and lists your key pages for language models. It is an emerging convention, not a guaranteed signal, but it is cheap to add.

Step 2: state the facts plainly

Assistants answer questions. Give them answers. Go through your main pages and make sure each of these is written out in ordinary sentences:

• What your business does, in one sentence.
• Where you are based and which areas you serve.
• Who you work with.
• What your services are and what each includes.
• Prices, or at least starting prices.
• How long things take.
• How to contact you and when you are open.

Businesses often resist publishing prices. From an AI search point of view, a published starting price is one of the most citable facts you can offer, because "how much does it cost" is among the most common questions people ask.

If a fact about your business is not written down in plain words, an AI assistant cannot repeat it.

Step 3: structure pages so they are easy to quote

The way a page is organised affects how easily a system can lift an answer from it.

• Answer first. Open each section with the direct answer, then explain.
• Use question headings. "How long does a rebrand take?" matches the way people ask.
• Define terms. A sentence beginning "Brand strategy is…" is exactly what a definition query needs.
• Use lists and tables for steps, comparisons and prices.
• Add a short summary of key points near the top of long articles.
• Include a FAQ section with real questions customers ask.
• Keep paragraphs short and about one idea each.

None of this is a trick. It is simply good writing for busy readers, and what helps a hurried person also helps a machine.

Step 4: add structured data

Structured data is code that labels the content of a page in a standard vocabulary called schema.org. It tells a machine, without ambiguity, that this is an organisation, here is its address, these are its services, this block is a question and this is its answer.

The most useful types for a service business are Organization or LocalBusiness on the homepage, Service for each offering, Article for guides, FAQPage for question sections, and BreadcrumbList for site structure. Structured data does not guarantee anything, but it removes guesswork.

Step 5: be consistent everywhere

AI systems build a picture of a business from many sources. Conflicting information weakens that picture. Check that the following are identical wherever they appear:

• Your business name, spelled the same way.
• Address, phone number and email.
• Your description of what you do.
• Your website address.

Look at your Google Business Profile, social media bios, LinkedIn company page, directory listings and any press coverage. Mismatched names and old phone numbers are common and easy to fix.

Step 6: earn mentions beyond your own site

What others say about you carries more weight than what you say about yourself. Assistants frequently draw on third-party sources: industry publications, review sites, directories, forums and comparison articles.

Practical ways to build that presence:

1. Collect genuine reviews on Google and on platforms relevant to your industry.
2. Get included in credible lists and directories in your field.
3. Contribute expert comment or articles to trade and business publications.
4. Publish original information others can cite, such as your own pricing, process or data.
5. Ask clients and partners for case studies and mentions.

This is slower than editing your own website, and it is the part competitors cannot copy quickly.

Step 7: publish content worth citing

Thin articles written only to contain a keyword are less useful than ever. Content that tends to be cited has one or more of these qualities: it answers a specific question completely, it contains concrete figures or steps, it reflects first-hand experience, or it explains something local that general sources miss.

For a Nigerian business, that last point is an advantage. Global sources rarely explain how something works specifically in Nigeria: the costs in naira, the local regulations, the way customers here actually behave. A clear local guide can become the best available source on its subject.

How to measure progress

Measurement is less mature than in traditional SEO, but you are not blind.

• Ask the assistants. Regularly put your customers' typical questions to the main AI tools and note whether and how you appear.
• Watch referral traffic. Analytics will show visits arriving from AI products.
• Check server logs or your host's reports for visits from AI crawlers.
• Ask new customers how they found you. Add "AI assistant" to the options.
• Track branded searches. People who hear of you from an assistant often search your name next.

What not to do

• Do not stuff pages with hidden text or instructions aimed at AI systems. It does not work reliably and can get a site penalised.
• Do not publish large volumes of low-quality machine-written pages.
• Do not invent statistics, awards or reviews. False claims spread, and they come back.
• Do not trust anyone who guarantees placement in AI answers. Nobody controls them.

AI search optimisation: frequently asked questions

Is AI search optimisation different from SEO?

It builds on SEO. The technical foundations are the same. AI search optimisation adds more weight to clear factual statements, structured answers and your reputation on other websites.

Should I block AI crawlers from my website?

If you want AI assistants to mention your business, you need to let them read your public pages. Blocking makes sense mainly for publishers who sell access to their content.

How long before my business appears in AI answers?

Assistants that search the web live can pick up changes within days or weeks of your pages being indexed. Knowledge learned in training updates only when new models are released, which takes much longer.

Does publishing prices really help?

Yes. Cost questions are among the most common, and an assistant can only quote a figure that is published. A starting price is enough.

Where to start

Check that AI crawlers can read your site, write your key facts in plain sentences, restructure your main pages so the answer comes first, add structured data, and make your business details consistent across the web. Then build mentions elsewhere, steadily. If you want help auditing your site for AI search, talk to us.

Further reading: Google's SEO Starter Guide.